I am passing this along. Miles of trails have been lost over the past 20 years due to lack of funding and lack of volunteers to help maintain the trails. Green Lane is a huge riding park in Montgomery County. If the trails are losti n this park, many of us that condition our endurance horses or ride our pleasure horses will be missing a lot. Forward this along *BUT* also consider being a volunteer to help with this clean up and to maintain the trails NOT on the red loop.
Brigita
Hello All,
I met with the park office at Green Lane this week about the lack of mowing of fields along the red trial (knight road) at Green Lane Park. I, along with 4 other local concerned citizens of the county, met with park and county officials to discuss how the park is being maintained. The park has given us permission to mow and weed- whack these areas. I will meet with county trail manager, Rich Wood, at Knight Road next week to map out areas to be mowed. They have agreed on mowing paths on existing trails on the perimeter of park. Areas to be addressed are across from the parking lot at Knight Road, Red Hill Road and the Dogwood trail area, across from the reservoir bridge. A local landscape business has offered his time, insurance and mowers to help mow these areas. We have also been approved to use weed whackers to clear debris around jumps.
I am asking you all to please pass this around to all that you know who use the park and can volunteer to help clean up the park. This is a huge area and may take some time to do. It would be great if we could get one group to handle the mowing and weed whacking per section described.
If you are interested in helping and can help by mowing or weed whacking, please contact me. I will need to contact the park as to when, what and how many people will be in the park to volunteer for clearing trails. No chain saws are allowed. The park said they will clear trees that have fallen from the winter.
For your information, the parks plan for Green Lane Park, is to have only the 3 mile section of the Red Trail maintained as a multi-use trail, which connects to the blue trail, then to a section of the Perkiomen Trail, than to the Connector Trail, making an approximately 15 mile loop around the reservoir. The park is marking this trail loop for all users, bikers, hikers and equines to use. This will be the only trail maintained. The park’s budget and man power have dictated this. The new map indicating this loop can be found in the kiosks at the park. This will be the only trail maintained by the park until further notice; it could be up to 5 years before they consider adding any other trials to the map to maintain. The park is concerned about other trails being formed in the meantime, which are not designated trails; please do not make new trails. I explained to the park that if you don’t mow paths on existing trails, users will find ways around these un-mowed areas. And if you leave these areas unattended over time without mowing, the brush and aggressive plants will take over these areas and close them in, causing more hostile measures to re-open at a later time.
We, users of the park, need to be more vocal on our county park; Green Lane is the largest park in our county. I feel money is not being spent wisely at the park. Over the last 30 years Green Lane Recreational wonders are slowly diminishing away. If we don’t get involved and don’t speak out our opinions, we may lose more trails and access to many beautiful areas of the park.
Contact these people about your feelings about the park –
Your county Commissioner of Montgomery County – James Matthews, Joseph Hoeffel, Bruce Castor,
Parks and Heritage Director – Ronald Ahlbrandt
610-278-3000, P.O. Box 311, Norristown, PA 19404-0311 or website at:
http://www2.montcopa.org/montco/cwp/view,a,3,q,15786.asp
General public meeting with these county officials are on a regular basis, and open to the public, attend!
Your voice can be heard. And your equestrian voice needs to be heard.
Please let me know, contact me, if you can volunteer your time and tractors or weed whackers. We will begin clearing paths at Green Lane again together!! Stay in touch and keep your eyes open. Let me know if you can help!!
Carol Bowe
Little Red Horse Barn
Harleysville
215-256-1667